The present application relates generally to the field of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems for vehicles.
A conventional HVAC system for a vehicle uses heat produced by an internal combustion engine to heat air passing through the HVAC system and into the passenger compartment. These systems use a mixing chamber to mix a supply of hot and cold air, resulting in a mixture having a desired temperature. Due to the limits of the mixing chamber, these systems are limited in their abilities to provide streams of two different temperatures to a passenger and account for irregularities of airflow mixing at different temperatures and mass flow rates.
The separate hot and cold air supplies and mixing chamber result in energy losses due to flow stagnating in the mixing chamber. Furthermore, by mixing separate streams rather than heating one stream, a conventional HVAC system may result in uneven temperature distribution throughout the vehicle. It would therefore be advantageous to provide an improved HVAC system for vehicles that addresses these and other issues prevalent in conventional HVAC systems.